Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News – September 1

Commuters travel on Rach Mieu Bridge as they head to Vietnam’s Mekong Delta on August 31, 2019. Photo: Mau Truong / Tuoi Tre

Here are today’s leading news stories:

Society

-- A tropical depression has entered the East Vietnam Sea and was located 280 kilometers northeast of Vietnam's Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago as of 1:00 am on Sunday, the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting reported, adding that the low-pressure system may become a storm on Monday.

-- A total of 29 road accidents occurred across Vietnam on Saturday, the first day of a weekend holiday marking National Day (September 2), killing 25 people and injuring 16 others, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

-- Police in Pham Ngu Lao Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City are investigating a street brawl that broke out on Bui Vien Street within the city’s ‘backpacker area’ on early Saturday morning after a video clip of the incident went viral on social media.

-- Officers in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang have arrested several suspects and are hunting for some others for being involved in a physical confrontation inside the province’s general hospital on Friday night.

-- A new decree that took effect on Saturday has banned all karaoke bars in Vietnam from operating between 12:00 am and 8:00 am on a daily basis.

-- Border guard and anti-drug police forces in the northern province of Dien Bien confirmed on Saturday they had arrested two suspects for trafficking 20,000 pills of crystal meth from Laos into Vietnam.

Business

-- Vietnam's total rooftop solar power capacity is expected to reach around 2,000 MW by the end of 2020, Vietnam Electricity (EVN) said, adding that more than 4,000 households have installed rooftop solar power systems over the past three months.

-- Ho Chi Minh City authorities are planning to spend hundreds of billions of dong (VND100 billion = US$4.3 million) on building more than 100 reservoirs to store rainwater and control flooding by 2020 under a flood-control program.

Many sewers along the streets in Ho Chi Minh City have their entrances blocked by garbage on a regular basis, negatively impacting urban esthetics and the environment while helping cause serious flooding.

Despite the sweltering weather in Hanoi these days, many young people still flock to lotus ponds surrounding the capital city’s iconic Ho Tay (West Lake) to pose for Instgram-ready photos with a sea of blooming flowers.